Tenants get back $1.1M in Qns. deal

The huge private-equity firm that bought a rent-stabilized Queens housing complex last year has agreed to pay $1.1 million in refunds to tenants after it found they were entitled to rent reductions, the Housing Rights Initiative revealed Friday.

Blackstone Group, which acquired the 1,327-unit Parker Towers in Forest Hills last November, conceded that 110 units there should have been getting reductions, according to the nonprofit housing watchdog, which is embroiled in a lawsuit with the Manhattan-based multinational company.

Tenants are expected to see an average rent reduction of $230 a month.

Tenants filed a class-action suit over rent-stabilization practices against former complex owner Jack Parker Corp., alleging the company illegally deregulated apartments despite getting tax breaks under the J-51 exemption and abatement program, which requires owners maintain rent-stabilization.

When Blackstone took over the property, it assumed responsibility. Blackstone did not respond to a request for comment.

The Housing Rights Initiative lauded the victory Friday but said more needs to be done.

“The goal here is not to get back some of what was stolen, but to get back all of what was stolen,” said Aaron Carr, executive director of nonprofit HRI, which did the research leading to the suit. “Stay tuned.”

Carr said for years HRI’s plea for Gov. Cuomo to probe landlords who run afoul of exemptions like J-51 have fallen on deaf ears. “Cuomo is a whollyowned subsidiary of the real estate sector,” he said.

“We’ve passed among the strongest rent-protection laws in the nation, which we’re going to further build on this year,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. “If we responded to every trashy nonsensical attack from a self-appointed advocate, there would literally be no time left in the day.”